Love Sailing

I motored Elektra back from Falmouth to Gillan Harbour after she had been rewired at the end of July. I was lucky to find an Marine Electrician who was between jobs and could do the rewiring over a weekend. It was nice to find out that the new eletronics hadn’t been effected by the fire.

Then I spent the next 4 days washing the cabin hot soapy water (under the powder is a sticky surface). On Wedensday I replace Elektra’s bow nav light, sometime between us abandoning Elektra off the Lizard Pt and us picking Elektra off a mooring in Helford River the fitting had been broken. This seemed like an easy job but the light was out of reach on deck from the bow because of the furrling gear and from standing in a dinghy was above head hight, if the dinghy would have stayed still it would have been easier! Lol, I did manage it in the end even if it did take me 5hrs!

On Friday at about 0500hrs, I motored Elektra into St Anthony beach to let her dry out so we could reload her cruising which had all been home for washing and cleaning. I came back home and loaded the pick-up and around 1000hrs I drove back to St Anthony with Vicki to load the gear.

At about 1230hrs we left St Anthony for home again after removing my petrol generator which I had been using for the vacuuming. It was 1500hrs before I drove back to St Anthony to wait for Elektra to float off again which she did at around 1600hrs. I picked up her mooring and attached the dinghy before dropping again to go for a sail. It was only about 5nm over 1.25hrs, but it was lovely to be out sailing again after all the hard work.

VHF, I’m not a great user of the VHF Radio, I did the VHF/DFC course back in 2006 and I listen on ch16 to the endless calls to Falmouth CG asking for a radio check. But when we had a fire, calling Falmouth CG was the 2nd thing I did after writing in my log, after I thought I had put the fire out. At the time we were sailing at 4.5-5kts and I thought we could carry on with our passage. The duty officer asked if l was declaring an emergency and I was thinking about it as we talked, I have always independent, not really a team player and I don’t like asking for help. Event’s took over with the discovery of the second fire and the duty officer declared an emergency on our behalf, tasking the Lizard lifeboat. So at first sign of a problem get in contact with your local Coast Guard.

Fire extinguishers, when it comes to fighting a fire, simple is best! During the winter I had bought a fire stick, I read the instructions and put it on its braket, but when the fire started I couldn’t remember how it worked and for some reason I had forgotten how to read! The 1kg powder extingisher was dead simple, pull the safety clip and press the leaver. So simple is best. If you don’t know, or any of your crew don’t know how to opperate any safety equipment before you grap it, it’s useless to you! Reading the instructions on the fire stick again after the fire, I know just how it operates now. But this wouldn’t have helped much with this fire as it works for 50 seconds and then stops. With the powder, I was blasting it with powder, putting the fire out and stopping, then the fire would start again and so on, possibly for as long as 1/2hr! Powder extinguishers are horible to use and horible to clear up after a fire, but are very efective, by the end of the first week I had already replaced the used ones plus added another 2kg one.

Not to put anyone off grabbing and extinguisher when needed but the powder from the extinguishers is truely awlful stuff. I found vacuuming up was the best method, but under the powder is a skicky layer which needs to be washed with hot soapy water. I had an old vacuum cleaner which the powder destroyed! So bought a new one, but after just one day the filters were clogged up and needed blown out a compressed air.

After the fire I thought I should have turned the power off before, but it was comforting knowing help was on the way via ch16. But my marine electrician said once the fire started, there would have been lots of dead shorts and turning the power off wouldn’t of worked anyway, the fire only went out he said once it ran out of battery power and what I did was stop the fire speading to the GRP. Many have said since, I should have disconnected the batteries, but this really wasn’t an option as I would have had to empty the quarter berth, removed the battery lids and got tools out to do so all at the same time as fighting the fire, which was keeping me busy on its own!

I have since been told, a turned off gas bottles dosen’t explode unless in a major fire, by which time, you wouldn’t be aboard anyway. The fear of a gas explosion was my main reason for abandoning her after being advised to do so by the duty CG officer. By then the cabin being full of powder and smoke we couldn’t enter but we could have stayed aboard in the cockpit. Back to this saying “don’t get in a lifefaft (in our case a dinghy) until you have to step up into it”

I had bought a new grab bag over last winter because we had planned to cross the Celtic Sea to Ireland this season (our plans were scuppered with Vicki’s medical treatment). We haven’t ever used a grab bag since starting cruising back in 2006, and we didn’t have our new one packed up during our crossing back to the mainland from Scilly, so when we abandoned Elektra, we left with almost nothing! When we got home later, we didn’t have any keys and I had to break a window to get in. I will be packing it up with all our essentials before all passages in future.

Ill afects, lots of friends said afterwards “you must have been scared.” I can honesty say no, as I was too busy dealing with the fire! But, I had the shakes for a couple of days afterwards and was coughing from the powder extinguishers for a week (in some ways, a dust mask attached to each extinguisher would be a good idea). But my main problem has been, not sleeping well! Over the first 2 week’s I only slept 40 hours.  I think I’m sleeping better now, but I used to sleep solid for 7 hours every night.

I have always used professionals for any new wirering, l had an electronics company, “PRS” to fit Elektra’s new Garmin electronics in November 2024. They had the misfortune of disconnecting a number of USB sockets and cabin radio in the process. I now know electronic companies should never be employed to do boat electrical work, because they haven’t any clue what they are doing! “PRS” knew about Elektra’s fire aboard soon after it happened on 13th July because l tried to contact them, but now, two months later, l still haven’t had any reply. And they never did get the new electronics working properly.

I had used an old vacuum cleaner to clean up most of the powder, this finished the vac and so I ordered a new one online which arrived on Friday On Thursday the boat yard helped me get my petrol generator aboard and on Friday they moved Elektra out onto her seasonal mooring. On Saturday I cut our grass which I hadn’t cut for over 4 weeks and on Sunday I took the new vacuum cleaner out to Elektra and hovered out everywhere I could get too.

My sleep pattern had been totaly messed up! My pre fire sleep pattern was sleep 2300-0700hrs every night, by Saturday evening I had only had 21hrs of sleep since the fire. And the following week not much more sleep.

On the Monday morning the marine electrician came and looked at Elektra, in order to do a quote for the insurance. On Tuesday his quote arrived and on Wednesday I sent all the paperwork and photos I had to the insurance for claim.

It was nearly midnight before we got home on Sunday night, the ambilance crew had very kindly offered to take us home from Lizard RNLI Station, and when we arrived I had to break a window to get in because we had left almost everything aboard Elektra when we abandoned her. There wasn’t any milk for even a coffee, it seemed like the best thing to do was go to bed, but I couldn’t sleep! So I got out and did some computer work and went back to bed at about 0400hrs, slept for 2hrs before waking up coughing because of the powder from the extinguishers, so got out. On Sunday while we were on passage I had contacted my shore contact (Patti) to say we had left Scilly and were on passage to Gillan, our eta wasn’t until 2300-2400hrs. Patti replied and said she was on holiday out of the country and 2hrs ahead, so don’t expect a reply, but safe journey. At 2140hrs Sunday, I sent a text saying “we had a problem, but all OK, tell you about it later” at the time we were sitting in the lifeboat station. So at 0625hrs on Monday I told Patti the story of our problem!

Then about 0720hrs I decided to walk to St Anthony (it would help clear my head) to get some stuff from Elektra, but before hand I looked around for spare keys for as much as possible. Then I walked to St Anthony, when walking along the road which overlooks the moorings, I couldn’t see Elektra out there. And talking to Anthony the boss of the boatyard, he hadn’t been in when the Lizard lifeboat tried to contact him. So now it was search for Elektra time, I used the spare key to drive the pick-up to Helford and hopfully find Elektra. And there she was about 3 mooring into the river, her foresail flapping in the increasing wind. I phoned Anthony, who had a shortage of avalible help, so I suggested I help bring Elektra around from Helford River to Gillan Harbour, which he thought would work. I tried to phone Vicki to tell her what was happening but no reply. The tow went well and we moored Elektra between the waiting mooring and the shore to let her dry out. Only then did I have a chance to look in the cabin of the yacht we had abandoned aprox 15hrs before. I started packing bags to take home, cleared the fridge and picked up Vicki’s tablet and phone, all the keys, everything was going to have to be removed and cleaned or washed before use again, white powder covered all! I didn’t have long because the tide was going out and it’s difficult when alone to get bags off from cockpit to dinghy, I took what I could and locked her up and drove home.

After brunch, I phoned my insurance broker to report and start claim process, I also phoned my engineer and told him about the fire, he was going to be down at St Anthony on Tuesday working and would have a look. I returned to Elektra now dried out with more bags to fill, this time I started to remove the items from the quarter berth, the powder was about an inch deep in there! We had always used the quarter berth for stowage as the berth was difficult to get in and out of because of the chart table. In the quarter berth was all my tools and spares, the rolled up cockpit encloser, a bag of recycling which we still had from Scilly, spare lifejackets, a plastic folding box, a folding sack trolly, a new 30lt ruck sack, a new empty grab bag! All of which was covered in a thick layer of powder. As I moved this out into the cockpit, I think the powder looked like smoke as it blew away in the wind and David J asked if I was OK. By now I was getting grouchy with lack of sleep and the powder was really awful stuff to deal with, and I don’t think my answer was very nice.

I unloaded more bags and loaded them into my pick-up and drove home, most of this stuff went into my shed to deal with later, with only a few bags coming indoors for Vicki to deal with. I wasn’t doing anymore today and went for a shower, afterwards I was sitting on the bed and noticed a WhatsApp message, it was from David P who knew we had been in Scilly and asked if we were back in Gillan, David was one of the first people I told or texted to about it and it was surprising how much it helped with processing what had happend.

The rest of the week continued with much of the same, my engineer Anthony had a look at Elektra’s engine on Tuesday evening and said the engine harness was good, only a earth cable from the batteries will need replacing. I had tried to contact the eletronic company who did the work on Elektra in the winter, looking for them to do a quote for repairs, but now a week on, they haven’t reponded! I asked a sailing friend Rob, if he could contact Bob Orchard for me as I knew they were friends. Bob told Rob he was winding up his buisness but gave another name and number to contact. So by the end of Wednesday, I had contacted a local marine electrician who was away on holiday but was coming back at the weekend (Rupert had called me from his hoiliday and asked for photos sent on WhatsApp) From the photo’s he said the job was doable and he said he would contact me Monday.

The damage seemed to be mainly wiring and the alternator diode which were burnt in fire. The fire had spat into a new ruck sack which was stowed in the berth, but that had saved everything else under it. The cockpit encloser was rolled up and stowed in the berth, the canvas was fine but the plastic windows had suffered because of the heat of the fire. The fire had blackend the ceiling above the alternator diode. There was powder everywhere and the cabin needed to be emptied and totally cleaned. The only other damage was external, the bow nav light was broken.

We had been in Scilly for over 3 weeks before looking for the weather to return to the mainland. With a weekend of east winds the Scilly silly season had arrived, St Mary’s Harbour was full and Porth Loo to the North had 27 yachts at anchor. We thought the time had come to leave. But the weather wasn’t looking good, now blowing east wind the forecast for next week was strong southwest winds lt’s not a hop down the coast, crossing from Scilly to Lizard Point is like being in the Atlantic ocean and anything stronger than force 5 is going to mean very big waves.

It was the morning of Sunday the 13th of July that l saw a possible weather window for the crossing. With the forecast of the easterly winds to die down and move to southeast force 5-6, then south force 4, then southwest force 3-5 before picking up on Monday. I spoke to Vicki when she awoke, and we agreed to leave around lunchtime.

It was 1120hrs when l pulled up Elektra’s anchor and as l stowed Vicki motored Elektra out of Porth Loo and south then southeast out of St Mary’s Sound into a head wind. It was rough once out of the Sound for about 10nm but slowly eased as we went east, to start with we were motor sailing to keep her going though the waves, then as time went on the wind became Southerly force 3-4. Then south-southwest and very light and so we were motoring. But slowly it picked up from the southwest, we could of been sailing but we continued to motor sail as we knew we would be arriving after dark and the less night time sailing the better especially with all the crab pot markers around.

At around 1900hrs the wind instrument stopped working, but the next time l looked it was working again. I wrote in the log at 1920hrs by then we had a southwest force 3-4 and we were 3nm west of the Lizard WP having logged 42nm. At 1930hrs the chart plotter went blank, it was then l noticed smoke coming from the cabin! And quickly went to investigate. I opened the  engine box and discovered fire🔥

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Having been in Porth Cressa for 2 nights, the forecast was now showing another strong wind warning this time from the East. The strong winds were due to come though on Saturday and Sunday, so on Thursday we moved over Porth Congor on St Agnes, this we thought would be sheltered from the easterly winds. It had been 7 years since we had last visited St Agnes.

So at the end of Thursday after l had walked the Garrison Walk from Porth Cressa. We moved the 2nm to Porth Congor  and dropped anchor between the moorings and the bar. Mainly yachts use the Cove southeast of the bar because this is deeper water. But we like Porth Congor as it’s quieter. What we had forgotten was both The Cove and Porth Congor suffer from no mobile signal, something which wouldn’t of bothered me 7 years ago but dose now!

Anyway we stayed the night and about an hour either side of low water we bumped up and down on the sandy bottom for 10mins, which wasn’t a nice feeling!

By the next morning l had decided to leave and go back to Porth Loo, so at 0800hrs l pulled up her anchor and motored her slowly out and turned north for St Mary’s Harbour. Half an hour later we had dropped anchor in Porth Loo with 1.5m under the keel at low water. We were here early but already there was about 15 yacht anchored here. Being shallow draft we were able to get in closer than most. Then over the rest of the day the numbers increased to 25.

Vicki and me went ashore for some shopping and had a pub lunch in the Mermaid Inn, before returning to Elektra and enjoying the sunshine in the cockpit between breaks out of the heat in the cabin! 24C in the shade and not much wind to cool things down! On the plus side we stayed out in the cockpit until dark before retiring below.

On Tuesday 2hrs before high water l pulled up Elektra’s anchor and Vicki motored her out. I took over and turned Elektra south over the shallows out of New Grimsby Sound. With no wind l continued south southwest across St Mary’s Roads and around into Porth Cressa dropping anchor in the shallows.

We went ashore for shopping, another experiment with the sack trolley and this time a folding plastic box. I don’t think this idea worked as well as the last time! And certainly the trolley was a no go when it came to the sandy beach of Porth Cressa! Anyway we continued and once back aboard decided, shopping needed to be little and often no one big shop weekly!

After that we collapsed into the cockpit and enjoyed the evening sunshine.

Friday evening after arriving in Green Bay the wind picked up from the west, and howled though the night, by morning it was also raining. This weather continued like this for 36hrs, but by midday on Sunday the sun had come out again. During the same period the wind had veered from the west and was now blowing from the north. During the 50% of the time we were floating it had been pretty uncomfortable aboard.

On Monday the wind was forecasted to die away by midday and our plan had been to move from Green Bay to Porth Cressa but the wind didn’t seem to ease very quickly. So in the afternoon we just moved out further in Green Bay, because the wind had moved around to the north Elektra had started to get very close to the rocks along the shore.

Our friends Charlie and Jackie aboard Tantrum and Keith aboard Loube used the end of the day to get ready to leave for the mainland and by the time l got out at 0630hrs next day, they had both left.

With the weather due to improving again we hadn’t plans to leave Scilly for another week and were planning to move over to Porth Cressa for shopping, l think today is Tuesday? That’s seems to be my biggest problem at the moment, remembering which day of the week it is! Lol 😆

After a lovely few days at St Martin’s the forecast for wet and windy mainly from the west and the Neck of the Pool wasn’t the place to be. We discussed our options and talked about going over to Old Grimsby on Tresco but with the wind forecasted to go from west to northwest on Monday we didn’t think there would be good, so decided to return to Green Bay, Bryher.

So on Friday an hour or so after we floated, l pulled up Elektra’s anchor and Vicki motored Elektra out south the way we came in to the Neck of the Pool. Now about half tide and rising, the local trip boats and ferries where moving about but not many yachts. We headed out south towards St Mary’s antenna with the sounder mainly showing 2.3m under the keel until we were south enough to turn southwest towards The Pots way point. It was interested seeing the Bryher ferry go north of the Pots while we stayed safe in deeper water. At the Pots WP we turned west for Paper Ledge way point. And followed another yacht into the shallows of New Grimsby Sound. Turning to starboard and then port around the rocks, the other yacht just carries on north without turning to port and Sampson Hill on Bryher. It wasn’t long before they discovered the shallow ground and almost stopped, but they did clear the shallows very slowly, while we went the longer deeper route.

When we turned around Merrick Island into Green Bay there was only about 5 yachts anchored there, so we could pick the prime spot just off the beach. By evening the numbers had swelled to 14 yachts for the blow to come, due to get up during that night.

During the rest of that day we relaxed in Elektra’s cockpit sunshine.